COURSE SYLLABUS
Office: Leonard 215 D
Hours: Monday through Thursday, 1:00 to 2:30, other times on request.
Phone: (724) 357-2274
Email: MMWIMSON@IUP.edu Web site: http://www.english.iup.edu/mmwimson/
I have scheduled all meetings of this course for a computer classroom. From the very first day, we will be working with the computer as our mail tool for writing. All of your work will be published on the web for students in other writing classes to read. You will be expected to read and respond to their work as well as part of your work for the course. Finally, your course grade will be based upon a portfolio of your writing that must be displayed on a web site of your creation. You will learn all of the necessary skills, if you do not already have them, as part of the course.
Course Requirements
Class Participation 25%
Final Examination 5%
Course Portfolio 70%
Completion of five essays (25%)
Three drafts of each essay (10%)
To be counted, the second and third draft must be typewritten
Responses from your group for each draft (10%)
Quality of three selected essays (20%)
Web Site Presentation (5%)
At a final conference at the end of the semester, we will read your letter to me, view your web site, and begin to determine your final grade.
Course Texts
The American Heritage Dictionary
(Houghton Mifflin, Boston, MA).Hacker, Diana. (1999). A writer's reference. NY: Bedford.
Random House. (1998). Random House Webster's school and office thesaurus.
Course Attendance Policy
"The university expects all students to attend class...."
Approved May 13, 1994, Council of Trustees
Indiana University of Pennsylvania 1999-2000 Undergraduate Catalog, p.26.
You will be permitted three absences from class without a need for an excuse and without any penalty to your grade. 25% of your grade is based on participation in class. Since you must be in class to participate, my minimal standard for participation is that you are present in class from the time we begin until the time we end. I will ask you to sign a participation sheet indicating that you were in class and participated each time. My record of your participation in class will be your signature on that sheet as well as file copies of at least three responses to other students’ work. Be sure that you sign it each time you come to class. Arriving late or leaving early will count as an absence. After three absences, each subsequent absence will cost you one point from your final grade. Failure to submit three responses each day will cost you an additional .5 of a point each.
Academic Integrity Policy
I direct your attention the Indiana University of Pennsylvania 1998-99 Undergraduate Catalog page 32 outlining the Academic Integrity Policy and Procedures. You will note that any violations of this policy can result in your failing the assignment, the course, or being suspended from school. Using the work of others or copying from sources without documenting your use of the sources is known as plagiarism. If I discover that you have plagiarized, I will give you a failing grade on the assignment that you copied from someone else. If you have plagiarized more than one assignment, I will fail you in the course. If I discover that you have violated the academic integrity policy in the past, in addition to failing En 100, I will seek to have you suspended from school.
Ultimately, the only person who is cheated when a student is dishonest about completing an assignment is himself or herself. I will not ask you to do any busy work. If you do not complete an exercise, you have lost an opportunity to learn. I expect that all of us will take responsibility for our own learning.
If you have any questions about the Academic Integrity Policy or the meaning of plagiarism, please talk with me at any time.
Course Schedule
Please note that the course schedule is not set in stone. You may move forward on your own as you find you have time. I may also have to make some adjustments, depending upon our progress with each of the essays we are working on as a group.
The deadline for turning in your portfolio to me is during the final examination. The final, which is to be a reflective letter to me about your progress during the term has to be completed before I will review your portfolio. I will not accept late portfolios.
July 8 Begin assignment number 1
July 10 Begin assignment number 2
July 16 Introduction to web page development, begin assignment number 3
July 29 Begin review of work for the portfolio and assignment number 5
July 31 Individual conferences and review of web site
August 1 Individual conferences and review of web site
August 2 Final Examination: The Writing Center, 9:30 AM
Writing Assignments
Assignment 5